What’s at stake in the current election?

It seems like a cliché to say that this is the most important election in our lifetime. But it feels like that right now. Here are a few different things I think are at stake in 2024, of importance to those who share a biblical worldview.

1. The value of human life

One party celebrates abortion up to the moment of birth, although they won’t admit that they want it up to the moment of birth. The other camp wants to allow some modest restrictions on abortion.

Abortion cheapens the value of human life. As Mother Teresa once declared, “If we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?”

If the lives of unborn babies are cheap, then life is cheap at later stages as well. If the lives of the unborn are worthless, why should people too old to contribute to society be kept alive?

2. Religious liberty

America was founded for religious freedom. Dedicated, non-conformist Christians for the most part are the ones who came to these shores. As the Puritans and other colonists in the northeast put it in 1643, in the New England Confederation, “We all came into these parts of America with one and the same end and aim, namely, to advance the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ and to enjoy the liberties of the Gospel in purity with peace.”

Religious freedom in America was then extended to other groups. But today we find religious freedom is at risk. Peaceful pro-lifers face more exacting punishment for speaking out on behalf of life than do convicted criminals.

Recently, Vice President Kamala Harris was asked how unlimited abortion rights should be. Should Catholic hospitals be forced, against conscience, to perform abortions? She answered that there should be no restrictions on abortion. Period. Conscience concerns be darned.

3. Israel

Although Donald Trump is being likened to Adolf Hitler ad nauseum, the reality is that Trump was and is a far greater friend to the Jewish state than has been the Biden-Harris White House, which frequently treats Israel as an adversary. Although many previous presidents promised to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Trump actually did it.

After the vicious attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in which Hamas tortured and killed Israeli men, women, and children, the Biden-Harris support for the Jewish state has been rather tepid.

In the spring of 2024, when college campuses, including many Ivy League schools, were aflame with anti-Semitic protests, the Biden-Harris team proceeded to coddle them.

Many commentators argue that Kamala did not choose the better candidate, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish, as her running mate – lest she offend Arab Americans.

4. Free speech rights

We should note that some on the left view the Bible as hate speech. And they view “hate speech” as unprotected by the First Amendment – or they view the First Amendment as obsolete.

Many on the left have said that the First Amendment is an obstacle to their goals.

5. The trans issue

Another issue on the ballot is, “What is a boy?” “What is a girl?” We can see this come into focus when many public school teachers and administrators try to hide from the parents what is taught in the schools. This conflict is perhaps most acute over the transgender issue — where the left says that gender is fluid.

This notion denies many girls advances in female sports. Somehow the image of a volleyball spiked by a biological male in a girls’ high school meet comes to mind. Such a ball can go as fast as 80 mph, and something like that happened to a girl in North Carolina who was knocked out by it. There was the 46-second unfair (and dangerous) boxing match at the Olympics between a female and a transgender. Seems grossly unfair.

6. The teaching of America’s true history

The United States of America was a noble experiment. It can be summed up in one phrase: Self-rule, under God. On July 4, 2026, the United States will be celebrating its 250th birthday. Will it be “morning in America” or will it be “mourning in America”?

Who we vote for in the elections will say a lot about our vision for the nation’s future. And I haven’t even mentioned the borders, the economy, inflation, and runaway crime. There are two competing visions between the two candidates on those fronts as well.

This is a battle between worldviews — one of which values the individual, parental rights, the sanctity of human life, and free enterprise. While the other values enormous taxation, gender fluidity, putting a wedge between parents and children, and giving up national sovereignty.

Christians, don’t sit this one out. There’s too much at stake.